Posts tagged “tadpole”

Posted on February 17th, 2016

Among the most remarkable animal stories are those involving friendships where we might not expect them. A friendship between man and dog is not surprising — after all, a dog is man’s best friend. Nor is it surprising to find a friendship between two dogs — or two men. We expect intraspecies friendships. But then we don’t. A friendship between two fish would surprise us, or between two invertebrates, two amphibians, or two reptiles. And we are surprised when we come upon apparent friendships between two very different species, such as cat and bird or duck and owl. In this piece, I want to explore my own questions about animal friendships. What is friendship? Friendship between two people can involve many conditions, such as…

Posted on May 7th, 2012

Conventions in this Paper: I refer to the genus as Ranavirus, the disease as ranavirus or RV. Except in the Overview, I have used endnotes to identify the sources of important statements, to allow further exploration of any claim. Overview Global biodiversity is now severely threatened by Ranavirus, a genus of virus that infect fish, amphibians and reptiles. The virus has infected both cultured and wild fish populations worldwide, and caused amphibian mortality rates of 90% or more during outbreaks. Most ranaviruses have low host specificity. Research summarized here involves 126 different species and subspecies that have contracted ranavirus. Humans appear to play multiple roles in facilitating the spread of the virus. Significant features of Ranavirus include: Low host specificity: the unusual capacity to…

Posted on April 17th, 2012

Recently an agricultural services firm was retained to spray the herbicide Milestone VM on nearby pastures to kill clover and other broadleaf plants. After spraying, rains washed some of the herbicide downhill from the pastures into the ponds below. Before the spraying, the ponds were full of tadpoles. A few days after spraying, there were no tadpoles in the ponds examined. Because none of the tadpoles had legs before the spraying, they could not have developed into adult frogs and walked off. Nor could any predator have managed to get every single one of them. And a “control group” — waterways not affected by pasture runoff — still had the tadpoles they had before this spraying. Adult frogs may have been killed as well…